Boot or shoe



(No Model.)

v T. P. MITCHELL.

3002:1011 SHOE. No. 290,460. Patented Dec. 18; 1883..

Q/ZZhMJa I of wwwy UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

TOBIAS P. 'MITGHELL, OF HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS.

BO'OT OR SHOE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 290,460, dated. December 18, 1883,

Application filed August 18, 1883. (No model.) i

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TOBIAS P. MITCHELL, of Haverhill, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boots'and' Shoes, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention consists of a boot or shoe adapted to be laced or otherwise adjusted to the foot of the wearer, and, after being thus adjusted, to be capable of being opened and closed about the foot in a manner to permit it to be taken off and put on with readiness and ease without disturbing its said adjustment or fitting, substantially as hereinafter described.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings, Figures 1 and 2 are both views of the same side of a boot of this invention, Fig. 1 showing it as adjusted and closed upon the foot, and Fig. 2 as opened for removal.

In the drawings, A represents the Vamp or upper of a boot, and B and 0 respectively the front and hind quarters at one side there of. The vamp A at its front a is slitted (slit not shown) over the instep D from the top b toward and nearly to the toe d of the boot. The vamp along each side of its said slit has a series of eyeleted holes, f, and a lacing end or cord, passes through these holes to lace the opposite sides of the vamp at its said slit, and draw the vamp about the foot of the wearer, all as ordinary. The front and hind quarters of the boot, on the opposite side to that shown in the drawings, are in one piece from the vertical center-line of the heel to the line of the slit in the front of the vamp. The hind quarter, .0, on the side of the boot shown in the drawings, is sewed to the hind quarter of the other side (not shown) of the boot, and

the front quarter, B, to the vamp A, all as ordinary; but otherwise said front and hind quarters, B O, at their lower portions are permanently connected to and through an intermediate piece of elastic goring, E, and the front quarter at itsupper portion, F, is shaped to lap over the hind quarter at its upper portion, and being provided with button-holes h, and said hind quarter with buttons Z. The

two quarters,'at their said upper portions, are

same.

When the boot described is to be put upon the foot, its front and hind quarters, B and O, are unbuttoned, and then, the boot being put upon the foot, these quarters are buttoned and its lacing-cords laced, as desired, lacing and thus fitting the boot to the foot. After having so fitted the boot, to remove it from the foot it is only necessary to unbutton its front and hind quarters, B G, leaving the lacing as it was adjusted in fitting the boot to the foot, for the reason that all the requisite relief of the boot about the foot for its removal is given when said front and hind quarters are unbuttoned, as stated, and because of the elasticity of the elastic goring-piece.

Aboot embracing the features, and as above described, obviously is desirable, for while it possesses all the advantages of a lacing and of a button boot, yet it has none of the inconveniences of a lacing-boot-such, for instance, as the necessity of unlacing the boot each time it is to be removed from, and relacing it when each time it is put on, the foot and also it fully remedies the difficulties with a boot closed and fastened together by buttoning the adapted only to be buttoned and of readily fitting it to the foot.

' Although this invention has been herein particularly described and shown in connection with a boot, it is applicable as well toa shoe.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- As an improved article of manufacture, a boot or shoe having an opening at its front adapted to be fastened by a lacing cord or cords, the lower portions of the front and hind quarters, B and O, at one side joined by an elastic goring, E, and their upper portions, F, adapted to be fastened by buttons, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

TOBIAS P. MITCHELL.

Witnesses:

EDWIN W. BROWN, WM. S. BELLows. 

